Meeting of the Minds: Ackerhardt
by ANBUShizuka
Summary: Mikasa and Annie, through the collective effort of their love and will, have decided to start a family. Things vary from adjusting easily to living arrangements to trying to determine who will kill who first.
1. Chapter 1

[X]

**October 5, Sina General Hospital, Maternity Ward**

**8:57 AM**

Carla Jaeger sat anxiously in the seat beside her husband, glaring at the man pacing the hallway. Her eyes were cat-like in more ways than just one. Not only were they an eerie gold color but they were sharp and observant; and the woman considered herself quite ready for what was about to happen. As she looked at her son- Eren was sitting on the other side of the hallway, tapping his foot and glancing worriedly at the door a couple feet away- she smiled and said, "Eren, go get something to eat. It'll calm your nerves." Shooting another glare at the gentleman pacing, she snapped, "And take Leonhardt with you. All his pacing is wearing on my patience."

"Excuse me," Nikolas growled, "but _my daughter_ is about to give birth. I have every right to be anxious and pace."

"_My daughter_," she shot back, "helped with this whole process. And like any good woman, she's there to support her spouse." Shooting a look at her always reticent husband, Carla ran her fingers through the length of her over-the-shoulder ponytail. "Grisha, has Doctor Smith told you anything?"

Pulling out his work phone, Grisha nodded. "Smith says that Annie's dilated up to a 4. She's entering active phase. We'll be here for a few more hours, no doubt." He raised an eyebrow at Nikolas. "Go eat with Eren. It will help your nerves and everyone else's. Besides that, you can go tell everyone in the waiting room how it's going." As a doctor himself, Grisha offered a wan smile and said, "Honestly. It'll be best for Annie as well if you're not worked up."

At the mention of Annie's welfare, the blonde man nodded in agreement and motioned toward Eren. As they walked off, the twenty-five-year-old glanced back at his parents. Grisha was looking at his work phone but Carla was staring after the two men with a worried look on her face. Her eyebrows were drawn and her lips were pulled into a tight smile. Eren knew that look. He glanced at Nikolas and asked, "Annie's own mom had complications giving birth? That why you're so worried?" When the older man nodded, Eren finally noticed how the hair at the man's temples was beginning to whiten. "Annie's strong. She's gonna make it without a problem."

"I know she's strong," Nikolas replied softly, "but what will strength do if her body tears and she loses too much blood?" He sighed. "My apologies. I just can't bear the thought of losing my daughter."

Eren slapped the man heavily on the back. "No worries. Annie'll be fine." As they entered the cafeteria, the young man was greeted by the various staff. One woman- a doctor, by her appearance- ran up and hugged Eren tightly. "What the- oh, hi, Petra!" He lifted the redhead off the ground and gave her a bear hug.

Nikolas watched, bemused, as the short female gave his daughter's brother-in-law a conk on the head. "Eren, where have you been? I've been missing you! All the kids miss having you do their check-ins." When Eren simply gave her an expectant grin, the doctor paused. "I mean, you only asked a couple days ago if you could take time off since your sister and her wife are- oh! Oh, that's _today_? It's happening _today_? Oh my gosh, Eren! You need to send me pictures- no, wait, _nevermind_! I'll come by after my shift today!" She kissed his cheek once and rushed off, shouting, "I'll be off at eight o'clock tonight!"

Seeing the look on Nikolas' face, Eren explained, "She's my boss. Kind of. I just work in the same clinic and she basically chose me as her favorite nurse." He guided the older man over to the line and said, "Get whatever you want. I'll put it on my tab." Nikolas stared blankly for a moment; otherwise, he remained silent and chose a sandwich to go with a chilled soup. As they sat down, Eren said, "Did ya ever think that your daughter and your top student dating would lead to grandchildren?" He grinned.

"No clue." Nikolas finally smiled at that, his eyes lighting up. He shuddered at the cool, refreshing taste of the soup and realized how hungry he actually was. It was then that he began eating with gusto, only to stop when he heard Eren laughing. Nikolas set his spoon down, huffing, "What?"

"You eat like a starving man," Eren laughed.

"Yes, well, you eat like a college student!" accused the older male. He pointed at the macaroni and cheese on the twenty-five-year-old's plate. Two slices of pizza sat on another plate.

"I just got out of college a couple years ago..."

"As if that matters. Doesn't mean you still need to eat as though you can't afford anything else."

"That sounds like something Annie would say. She's always picking on me!"

"Oh, really? You probably just annoy people then."

"Hey!" Eren growled. His eyes narrowed. "I'm just trying to save money. My partner and I want kids too. We even found a surrogate..." He grumbled quietly before taking a vicious bite out of his pizza.

Nikolas finished off his soup, still watching the young man carefully. "Annie told me that you've been working tirelessly on the baby's nursery." He smiled. "I saw it on my last visit. You did a great job." Nikolas, himself, had already set up a trust for his future grandchild and also bought clothes for the baby. His meal was already finished and he waited patiently for Eren to polish off his own food. "Shall we go see the others?" Eren nodded, grinning eagerly.

[X]

**October 5, Sina General Hospital, Maternity Ward**

**5:32 PM**

Erwin urged, "C'mon, Annie, you're almost done. Just one more push!"

"You said that nearly five hours ago, Smith!" Annie grit her teeth, shutting her eyes tightly. "I swear to God, if you say it one more time-!" A gripping pain caused her to groan and bear down once more. That was when a shrill cry rang through the room, causing Annie and Mikasa both to whip their heads up.

Doctor Smith smiled, easing back with the crying baby in his arms. Tears gathered in the eyes of both mothers and Annie felt a shiver go down her spine. The blonde doctor looked up and said, "Mikasa, come here. You can cut the umbilical cord."

Mikasa began to get up but paused, looking at her wife. Getting an exhausted smile in response to the unasked question, the Oriental woman eased out from her position holding Annie and went over to the man who had set the newborn on a raised edge table. The cord was clamped already. As she followed Erwin's instructions, she asked quietly, "Is everything done now?"

"Well, we just need to wait for the placen-" He paused at the look on Mikasa's face and laughed, "Oh, nevermind. The hard part is done. We'll just take your daughter and clean her up. Then, we'll bring her right back." He patted Mikasa on the back and instructed the nurse assisting to take the child for clean-up.

When everyone else had left the room, Mikasa went back to her spot beside Annie; she wrapped her in a protective embrace, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head. "Oh, God, Annie..."

A tired chuckle came from the blonde woman and she huffed, "It felt like it took forever but it was worth it." She buried her face in the crook of Mikasa's neck. Her eyes closed and she breathed slowly. Annie smiled softly when her wife began running her fingers slowly through the blonde tresses. They both looked up when the door opened again and Annie extended her arms eagerly to accept her child. She brought the baby, swaddled in a pink blanket, close to her chest.

With one arm wrapped around Annie's shoulders, Mikasa leaned over and brushed a finger lightly over the flushed cheeks of the little girl. She felt her own cheeks grow warm when two tiny hands stretched out and a soft whine cut the silence. Mikasa murmured softly, "I think...she might be hungry..." She chuckled softly at the way Annie turned to shoot a glare but she ducked her head for a quick kiss. "We'll wait for you to feed her before we let anyone in. All right?"

"I appreciate it, Mika," mumbled Annie. She smiled softly and offered the child to Mikasa while she shrugged out of one sleeve of the hospital gown.

Mikasa held the child tenderly; she was bewildered by the rush of maternal feeling and found herself loving the little girl without question. Noticing that Annie was ready, the taller female gently eased their daughter back into her wife's arms. She sat back down, allowing Annie to nestle close and rest while their child fed. "We won't be sleeping normally for a while, y'know."

"I'm well aware of the fact." Annie sighed tiredly. "Nothing I'm unaccustomed to. After all, you get called in on some crazy cases sometimes."

"Homicide has no schedule," Mikasa grumbled. She began stroking Annie's hair again. A tentative knock came to the door and the women looked up tiredly. "And apparently, neither do family members." She looked over and saw that their new daughter was done and was, apparently, sleeping. Mikasa took the baby and waited for Annie to get the hospital gown back to rights. Then, she went to the door and opened it. There, beyond the threshold, stood their family and friends; everyone was full of smiles and congratulations.

For the most part, the group remained quiet to allow the newborn sleep. However, there was a certain amount of tension between Carla and Nikolas. "My daughter is the one who actually gave birth. _I _should get to hold her first."

Carla hissed, "Are you _serious_, Leonhardt? I'm the grandmother. I deserve to hold her first!"

Bertholdt, in his usual way, came up quietly beside his friends and knelt beside the hospital bed, asking, "What's her name?"

Annie looked at her wife for a brief moment before looking back at her childhood friend and replying, "Natalia." She looked back the little girl and smiled when the child opened her eyes and cooed. Her attention was brought away from little Natalia by the sound of a scuffle in the corner of the room. By that point, Grisha was already beside the two women and reaching for the baby. Annie handed her daughter to Grisha slowly, allowing him to hold the little girl. As soon as he was off in his own corner, the blonde woman snapped, "_Dad, Carla!_" The two arguing grandparents halted their altercation and looked at the new mother. Blue eyes narrowed dangerously, Annie growled, "Stop it. I just spent over eight hours in labor. I am _tired_. And I am _not_ going to put up with the two of you arguing and upsetting my baby."

Nikolas felt his mouth go dry and he looked from his daughter, to Carla, and back again. "But, sweetheart-"

"No."

Carla tried, "Annie, really, I'm-"

"Don't even, Carla. I heard you both. I'm not stupid. And, by the way, the two of you an decide who gets to hold her last. Because both of you are waiting until everyone else has held her." Annie leaned back into Mikasa and watched carefully as Natalia went from person to person. She grew slightly fussy when Sasha held her for the sole fact that Sasha couldn't seem to calm herself.

Eventually, Nikolas conceded to hold the baby last and when she was finally placed in his arms, the man stared down at her in wonder. "Hey, Tali. I'm your granddad." He smiled softly, laughing when the tiny hands came up and touched the scruff along his jaw. Nikolas whispered softly, "You're so tiny..." When she became fussy again, he stood and walked her back over to his daughter. As he placed Natalia back in Annie's arms, he kissed his daughter's forehead and murmured, "And she's so beautiful, just like her mothers." Mikasa and Annie looked at one another, smiling. The Oriental woman then ushered everyone else out of the room to allow Annie peace and privacy to feed Tali again.

[X]


	2. Chapter 2

Before the cry even went up, Mikasa was already awake. Her grey eyes were heavy from lack of sleep and she could feel the way her muscles twitched anxiously. Annie, on the other hand, was fast asleep. This, Mikasa suspected, was because of the many hours she had spent in labor and on adrenaline from the first two days of bringing Natalia home. However, the moment that the baby cried, Annie's eyes snapped open and she whispered, "Do you want me to-"

"No, I'll go get her. She's probably having trouble sleeping. It'll only take a quick drive through the neighborhood to get her to sleep," Mikasa replied softly. She leaned in and pressed a kiss to Annie's forehead before throwing the blanket back and tugging a shirt over her torso. "Go back to sleep. She'll be hungry in a few hours, probably and you'll have to take care of that." With that, Mikasa went to the nursery and gently scooped her crying daughter out of the crib. "C'mon, sweetheart, don't cry...let's go for a ride." She snatched one of Natalia's blankets and started down the stairs as quietly as possible. Grabbing her keys from the side table in the entry, Mikasa locked the door to keep her wife safe as she went to their car with their newborn. As soon as Tali was secured in her carseat, Mikasa placed the blanket over the little girl and kissed her forehead softly. Tali whined unhappily, kicking at her blanket. Soon after, the Asian woman got into the driver seat and backed out, taking their daughter for a drive to put the little girl to sleep.

[X]

Annie rolled over, expecting to feel Mikasa's body welcoming her for cuddles. When she didn't feel the warmth of her wife's body, the short woman rubbed her bleary eyes and mumbled, "Mikasa?" Getting out of bed, Annie stumbled down the hall to the nursery and spotted the Asian woman cradling their daughter and singing softly. It was a touching sight but the two women were already beginning to feel the straining of parenthood on their bodies. Mikasa caught sight of Annie and smiled as she sang, catching her blue eyes and making Annie smile tiredly. Eventually, Natalia drifted off again and didn't even stir when Mikasa set her back down in her crib. Quietly, Mikasa went to Annie and stood in the doorway with her; their arms slid to coil around one another's bodies as they eyed the crib warily. Annie whispered, "We should get some sleep." Without another word, the two women made their way back down the hallway with Annie's arm around Mikasa's waist and Mikasa's arm around Annie's shoulders. As they laid down, Annie curled up against the taller woman's chest and huffed a sigh against the hollow of her neck. "So, who's idea was it to have kids?"

Mikasa chuckled and cupped her wife's cheeks, raising Annie's head to give the blonde a kiss. "We agreed on this, remember?"

"For what, the first time in our lives?" Annie smiled and lightly jabbed Mikasa in the stomach. "We argue about everything but agree on kids."

"We don't argue about everything," Mikasa protested, giving a small pout, "We just enjoy bantering too much, that's all." She pulled Annie against her chest and signed into the soft blonde hair. "Do you think we should talk to Grisha about this?"

"He's not a pediatrician, he wouldn't know."

"Grisha knows a lot though."

"He's a neurosurgeon. I doubt he knows if it's normal for babies to have trouble sleeping." With a yawn, Annie rolled over and scooted back against Mikasa. "We'll ask later, ok?"  
Nodding against the pillow, Mikasa threw an arm over Annie's waist and closed her eyes, eager for rest.

[X]

Nikolas blinked slowly at the exhausted look on his daughter's face when she opened the door. "Good God, have you slept at all?" He stepped into their home, looking around for Mikasa and Natalia. "Where is she? I need to hold her." Nikolas halted for a moment and turned an accusing glare at his daughter. "Has Carla been here recently?"

"Not since we brought Tali home, dad, don't worry." Annie rolled her eyes when his smile returned and she said, "Honestly, the two of you are adults. Act like it. You do not need to have a petty rivalry over your grandchild."

"You don't understand, Annie, this is a dire situation. Carla seems to think she's going to be a perfect grandparent and, as much as I hate to say this-"

"You don't."

"She isn't. Because I am." Nikolas threw his arms wide upon seeing Mikasa and Natalia and cooed at the child, "There she is!" He shuffled forward and ducked his head to kiss her cheeks repeatedly. She giggled, running her tiny hands over his scruffy jaw and he grinned at Tali happily. After a moment or two, she began to whine and grasp at the air for Annie.

"She's always hungry," Annie laughed. She took her daughter gently from Mikasa and went to the living room for a little privacy.

Nikolas watched after them with a soft smile before looking back at Mikasa and saying, "C'mere, I gotta tell you something." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and guided Mikasa into the kitchen, asking, "You're having trouble getting Tali to sleep?"

"Yeah. I have to take her for a car ride just to get her to rest," Mikasa replied quietly.

"Here's what you do- I asked the doc about this when Annie was a baby because she had the same problem- you gotta put her in her carseat and set the carseat on top of the dryer. Turn the dryer on. It'll be like a car ride and she'll go right to sleep."

Mikasa blinked back her confusion and gape at her father-in-law. "It's that simple?

"That simple," he replied.

"Oh my God. That explains why she falls asleep so easily on road trips," Mikasa gasped. She smiled slowly and asked, "So, what else did Annie do when she was a baby?"

Through the house, Annie shouted, "Don't you even dare, dad!"

"I'm not even doing anything!"

"You're talking about embarrassing things; now stop and get in here so you can hold your granddaughter!" Nikolas grinned and sped into the living room, snatching Tali out of Annie's arms and cooing happily at the baby. Mikasa walked in and smiled at her wife, feeling her heart swell to hear Natalia making happy little noises.


	3. Chapter 3

"Tali, sweetheart, look over here," Mikasa cooed softly. She grinned when her daughter's big, grey eyes blinked and her gaze shifted to focus on Mikasa. The bathwater was lukewarm, as Mikasa was terrified of getting it too hot and hurting the baby. She hunched over, resting her arms over the edge of the tub to push the floating toys back towards the six-month-old. Tali giggled, her little hands grasping clumsily at the toys, getting the water to splash. The sound was, as ever, fascinating; the little girl began to slap the water, getting drops all over Mikasa's face. "Sweetie, sweetie, hey! Hey, look!" Mikasa grabbed one of the toys- a little tugboat- and held it up for Tali. Then, waving it around a little, she thrust her hand with the toy back into the water, deepening her voice and saying, "The waves are too intense, captain, we won't make it!" This caused the child to squeal gleefully, a happy smile causing her chubby cheeks to raise.

Annie, upon hearing the noise, looked up from her book and raised one fine eyebrow. "What in the name of hell is going on?" Grabbing her phone, she slid out of bed and carefully made her way out of the bedroom and into the hallway just outside the bathroom. She tapped the screen, bringing up the camera and switching it to camcorder. Then, she hit the button to record and bit her lip, listening as her usually taciturn wife made loud splashes to entertain their daughter.

"Oh no! It's Moby Dick! We're done for!" came the falsetto tone of what Annie assumed was one of the crew.

Another voice change announced the captain and this one was gruff. "Ya fools! I'll harpoon the beast myself!"

A great splash followed as Mikasa returned to her normal voice and she mumbled, "Uh oh. It sank." She turned to face Natalia once more and smiled brightly when the tiny hands reached out to grab the boat. "Save them, Tali!"

At the enthused cry from her daughter, Annie let out a quiet giggle, making Mikasa's back tense. As the Asian woman began to turn, Annie hit the stop button and shoved the phone in her back pocket. "That was quite a performance, Mikasa. Ever consider theatre?"

Mikasa's grey eyes narrowed as she gathered their blonde daughter from the tub and began to dry her. "Shut up, Annie. I was just trying to make bath time fun for Tali. Wasn't I, sweetheart?" She dried Tali off and set her on the soft mat, leaning in to nuzzle her tummy, sending the girl into a scream of giggles again. "Who's gonna be beautiful just like her mommy? You!"

The shorter woman stood, bemused, in the doorway. She had expected that Mikasa would be an attentive, caring parent. She had not expected the woman to be so devoted to making their daughter happy at almost any given time that she would readily do something so silly as act out an extremely edited version of a literary classic with different voices. "You're ridiculous, you know that?"

"Yeah," Mikasa replied simply. She stood, Tali wrapped in a warm towel in her arms, and went to Annie, tipping her head for a kiss. "I thought you loved it when I act ridiculous."

"Oh, I do. I'm sure the family will too when they see this," Annie laughed as she brought the video up and let Mikasa watch. At first, her eyes simply narrowed. But then, her eyes widened and a mortified look took hold. "Oh my god, Annie, _no_."

"Oh my god, Annie, _yes_. Mikasa, this is hilarious! And it's cute!" She pressed another kiss to Mikasa's lips add she left to go grab her book again. "My dad lives to see you acting silly!"

"God fu-"

"Not in front of the baby!" Annie called over her shoulder.


	4. Chapter 4

Natalia was screeching her displeasure through the house, making it abundantly clear to all present that she was less than satisfied with nap time. It was at that point, when Mikasa had made her way wearily back to the living room with Tali in her arms that Carla stood up and held out her arms. "Give her here, Mikasa. Let me see what I can do."

Handing the little blonde baby over, the twenty-five-year-old watched as Natalia only proceeded to scream louder and reach anxiously for Annie. "I just fed her ten minutes ago," Annie said with a frown. Just as she was about to reach for Tali, Carla held up one finger. Curiously, Annie raised an eyebrow but otherwise said nothing.

"Take off your hoodie. Do you have a bra on?" Carla rolled her eyes at the mortified looks on Annie and Mikasa's faces, grumbling, "Good Lord above, I'm a mother too; just trust me. Nikolas, get out."

"_Excuse you_, Carla," he growled, "but I'm staying right here. I trained Annie from the time she was ten and up through her years of having to get progressively bigger sport gear. Besides, it's nothing I haven't seen." He glanced at Annie and nodded, turning his head away to at least give some semblance of privacy.

Slipping the hoodie up and off of her body, Annie silently thanked whatever fates there were that she had decided to wear a low-cut tanktop. "Actually, that's good enough. Sit down," the older woman instructed. When Annie had done so, Carla set Natalia on the bare skin of Annie's chest and smiled as the baby quieted down, softly hiccupping as her tears subsided. "There!"

Mikasa's eyes widened as Tali nodded off and her little hands curled against her mother's collarbone. "How'd you know, mom?"

"Oh, honey, your real mother couldn't get you to stop crying unless you were against her bare skin. You had colic!" Carla smiled as Mikasa blushed. "Yeah, you were a little cutie but, by God, if someone wasn't holding you, you'd get so fussy!" Turning to Nikolas, the woman asked, "What was Annie like?"

"Very happy and very quiet. Until it was bedtime." He grinned. "She needed a car ride just so she could go to sleep until she was about six months old. After that...all she needed was her Lion King blanky."

"_Dad_!"Annie hissed.

"Mikasa had to be held constantly until she turned two. Her poor mother was a stay-at-home mom though. Which was good." Carla reached up and patted Mikasa's head, giggling, "You were so needy and cute in your little onesie."

"_Mom_!" Mikasa's face was, if possible, a darker red and her lower lip was quivering.

"Oh, _God_! That's the way you used to look when you wanted someone to hold you and all the grown-ups were busy!" Turning to Annie, Mikasa's adoptive mother stage-whispered, "Can you honestly resist wanting to hold her when she makes that face? She's just so cute."

Nikolas grabbed a pillow and buried his face in it to stifle his boisterous laughter. As soon as it had died down a bit, he reached for his wallet, still laughing, "Ok, hang on, you wanna see something cute-"

Annie's eyes got big as she realized what her father was reaching for. "Dad, please, no. Just _no_."

He pulled out a picture and held it up, chuckling, "Annie was three in this picture and she _hated_ wearing clothes. See? Stripped right out of her little bibbers and everything."

"Bibbers?" Mikasa glanced at Annie, seeing her flash a glare at the man.

"Overalls," Nikolas explained.

"I hate all of you. Except Tali," Annie snarled. Looking down at her slumbering daughter, she smiled and kissed the top of her head. She said nothing as Mikasa sat down and leaned in, resting a hand on the baby's back and kissing Tali's forehead. However, when Tali sleepily reached out and snagged a lock of Mikasa's hair in her little fist, she muttered, "You're both such cute dorks."

Mikasa grinned at that and tilted her chin slightly, getting Annie to come in for a kiss. They tensed, hearing their parents laugh and pulled away to glare at the two. Mikasa asked, "Don't you two have something to argue about or something?"

"Not at the moment," Nikolas replied. He blinked, hearing a knock at the door. Then, when it opened, he snickered. "Hey, look, it's Aladdin."

Eren blinked and narrowed his eyes, growling, "What's that s'posed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing. You just remind me of a street rat."

Carla frowned at this and opened her mouth to protest when Eren shot back, "Nevermind that! I've got an idea and I need you two to help me!" He grabbed his mother's hand and motioned to Annie's father. "C'mon!"

He stopped and pressed a kiss to Tali's head, asking, "Can I have her tomorrow?"

Annie and Mikasa immediately retorted, "Yes!"

He grinned and ran out the door, pulling Carla and Nikolas along, shouting, "Thanks! I'll call you when I'm on my way tomorrow!"

The two women looked at one another, smiling weakly. Mikasa said, "Tomorrow. Just us."

Annie nodded and leaned in to give her wife a much more meaningful kiss, promising silently that they would make up for lost time. She breathed against Mikasa's lips, the hot air sending a shiver down the taller woman's spine. "Good. I've missed you."

Tali stirred then, whimpering and groping weakly for Annie's attention. Mikasa sighed softly, her smile softening as she plucked Natalia from Annie and quietly began to sing, her grin returning as Annie nestled against her side and they lay on the couch as a family, cuddled close and happy to be together.


	5. Chapter 5

"_Christ_, can you believe the shit that people do?" Jean growled as he stepped over another body. It had been late when they were called about a triple homicide with a loose shooter and Mikasa had been helping prepare Tali for bed. She simply shook her head at the man and looked towards the back of the house. "Apparently, it was a family. Looks like we got a mother and her baby back here."

Mikasa's stomach churned violently as she followed Jean into the kitchen where a woman with bright blonde hair lay in a pool of blood, baby clutched to her chest and unmoving. Her hand shot out, holding onto the door frame as all kinds of images hit her. "_Why? Why kill a mother and child?_"

"Hey, Mikasa, it ain't Annie and Tali. They're both safe at home," Jean reassured. Then, taking his camera, the man snapped more photos of the scene and instructed the responding officers to call the morgue for pick-up. Going back to his partner, the taller detective leaned in and murmured, "It isn't your family. You gotta separate work and home."

Without another word, the female detective turned and walked outside, beginning to talk to the witnesses. The dead man, according to witnesses, had been a reformed gang member who worked at a respectable warehouse downtown. The woman was his longtime girlfriend and the baby was their nine-month-old son. As she spoke to one of the next-door neighbors, the man revealed that he had remembered the car from a visit the week prior. The description was very detailed and when Mikasa called it in, the car was registered to the gang leader the victim once worked for. "Well, it big surprise. Remember the Titans?"

"That gang that Annie used to run with when we were in high school?" Jean eased into the passenger seat of Mikasa's black car and looked at the laptop she offered.

"That was small-time shit and she got out of it after her dad paid off his debts to the them," Mikasa reminded him sharply. Then, closing the laptop, she slid it into her bag in the backseat and pulled out of the driveway to head back to the station. "I already put out a warrant on him. He's a person of interest. Let's just type up that report."

"Actually, about that, since you're the senior detective-"

"I'll handle it, Jean. Your mom still not doing very good?"

Jean's expression paled slightly as he shook his head. "No...she's holding out since she wants to see me win my first big case but...I don't think she'll last much longer than that." His head snapped up when he felt one of his partner's hands gently squeeze his shoulder.

Mikasa smiled wanly. "We're gonna sink this one no problem. Want me to drop you off at the hospital?"

"Nah. Visiting hours are over for now. Besides, Marco is probably worried. For a teacher, the guy keeps ridiculous freaking hours." Jean laughed quietly as they pulled into the parking lot and waited for Mikasa to reach the station doors before getting into his own car and driving off.

[X]

"Ackerman. Wake up and go home. You're done for the night."

Mikasa's eyes fluttered open as the voice of her chief registered. On the computer screen, the preliminary case report sat completed and waited to be printed off and signed. "Sir, I-"

Nile Dok, the police chief, shook his head and said, "Get home and rest. I'm expecting you back, tomorrow, ready to finish this case. Understood?" When the Asian woman nodded, he grunted in reply and walked off, hauling his coat over his shoulders and walking out.

With that, the woman printed off the report and signed it, feeling her head swim with exhaustion and a desperate need to get home. As she slipped it into her outbox on her desk, she grabbed her own coat and headed outside, feeling the impending air from winter set in ever deeper. Mikasa drove home carefully, only keeping the music loud enough to keep herself from falling asleep. Even as she pulled into the driveway, home was not close enough and she bolted for the door as soon as the car was locked. It was nearly two in the morning as she kicked off her shoes quietly and stalked up the stairs. The first room she encountered was her own and as she looked in on Annie.

Annie was curled on her side, clutching Mikasa's pillow to her chest and Mikasa felt some of the tension in her shoulders ease as she saw her wife's own shoulders move with each breath she took. She snuck into the room, taking her scarf from her neck and leaving it on the nightstand as she leaned over to softly brush her lips over Annie's cheek.

Then, feeling a slightly more urgent need, she left her own bedroom and crept along the hallway to the nursery. As soon as she entered, her eyes locked onto the crib in the corner and she went to it, feeling her heart pound as she looked down at Natalia. She was slumbering away, little body sprawled out with the lamb doll that Annie had given the child. Mikasa reached in and gathered the baby to her chest, finally letting the tears that stung her eyes fall; she remained silent as ever, however, as she didn't wish to wake her daughter.

So caught up in the relief of holding Tali, Mikasa didn't notice when Annie groggily made her way into the room and quietly walked up behind the distraught detective. Blonde hair messy from restless sleep and blue eyes hazy in their state of half-awareness, Annie simply wrapped her arms around her wife's shaking form. She stayed quiet and didn't speak, knowing that Mikasa needed to know they were all alive and well. Later on that day, she knew that her wife would call Eren and Armin to have them come over and hold them as well.

Mikasa had some bad cases. And some hit awfully close to home. That was when Annie understood that her wife's fear of loss was all too real. But what hurt more than seeing it firsthand was knowing that Annie had no way to stop it.

After Mikasa's sobs had finally stopped, she allowed Annie to ease Tali back into her crib and whispered, "Annie, I-"

"Shh. It's all right. Just come get some sleep." After that, they didn't speak until they were back in their room and Annie had once again crawled into bed and pulled the tall detective into her arms. It felt slightly odd for Mikasa to be tucked under Annie's chin but she said nothing to stop it. "You worked hard today." Mikasa only nodded. "I love you, Mikasa. Sleep well."

The sobs came again. "I love you too, Annie." Mikasa cried herself to sleep that night but she didn't have any nightmares. Annie suspected she was just too exhausted but she didn't argue when Mikasa insisted it was because Annie had held her. All she did was smile silently and finish making breakfast.


End file.
